I WISH MY BROTHER JORGE WAS HERE

Talking with our Fort Thomas store manager the other day about the results of our recent 3rd Staff Showdown, one interesting fact arose: The winning wine in all three contests, as well as the second or third place in each, were wines imported by Jorge Ordonez. Our first showdown, held last year, yielded the Alto Moncayo 2005 from Campo de Borja as the winner. This past January, it was the Atteca Armas 2005. And most recently (although the wine is now represented by LVMH here in the U.S.), it was the Numanthia 2006. Other wines to show well (in the top three), were the Cellers Can Blau Mas de Can Blau 2005, Merum Priorat Ardilles 2004, Muga Reserva Rioja 2004 and the Borsao Crianza 2004.

No matter how hard we try, we can’t really seem to come up with a bad bottle from this energetic importer of Spanish wines. Indeed, I have blogged about great values like the Borsao Monte Oton and the Boutani Moscatel, and it seems like there is an endless supply of exceptional wines – red, white, sparkling, fortified – from Mr. Ordonez’s operation, and we wine lovers are the better for it.

The only thing that frustrates me in this Digital Age, is that the man doesn’t have a Web site for all of his wines. While other importers shine in providing all the information they can to their wholesalers, retailers, and oenophiles everywhere, it seems that Jorge has opted not to have such a resource. I can’t really complain a lot about that; it would seem he is using the savings he gains from not paying for IT people on to those who buy his wines by providing the lowest pricing across the board. That fact alone makes the Ordonez portfolio beneficial to any wine store, big or small. But when customers are still learning about all the grape varieties and all the new wine regions coming to us from Spain, it would be a huge asset to us Web geeks and neophytes alike to have a resource like a “jorgeordonezselections.com”.

Locally, our Jorge distributor has a listing of his wines on their site – http://www.cuttingedgeselections.com/ – yet I think it would be a big benefit to all for the folks at Jorge Ordonez Selections to take the IT plunge.